Help: Creating 3D building walkthroughs?

Ricki

Ricki

Ricki

Associate
Joined
23 Oct 2003
Posts
413
Location
Cornwall
In this semester of my degree (Civil Engineering) I basically have an ATC, car park, office space and restoration of a sports pavilion to design and present.

In the past I have used AutoCAD a lot (very adept at 2D, but not too hot on 3D) and have working knowledge of SolidEdge.

I have developed the ATC on SolidEdge but it’s very slow and is not really suited to architecture in my opinion. Also producing a walkthrough and render for even a flyby is insanely difficult and long process. Plus having ‘academic version’ stamped on the outputs is not particularly pleasing!

I was thinking along the lines of using one of the game engines such as UnrealEd to produce a simple/crude version of these designs. Then produce a walkthrough, flyby etc like all these clan videos on the net. All the real detail such as beam-column connections, shear bracings, truss structures etc will be hidden.

However, as I have no experience of this sort of stuff I would like any input from you guys. What engine would you recommend and video tools? Also any good tutorial sites out there to do such things?

However, if you think I am barking up the wrong tree and should use something else such as Bryce? Or Maya? Then please let me know. I have access to a very wide range of programs at the various uni departments.

Ideally, in the long run, I would like to start with 3D graphics, animations etc but with time constraints and learning curve I may have to stick with a rough, ready and restricted at the mo.

I am quite happy to do all the elevations and detail using AutoCAD and some parts using SolidEdge.

So can you guys and gals point me in the right direction please?
 
If you wanted to use a game engine, what about the cryengine2, they have just released a sdk for tihs, here is a vid of it being used for arch vis -

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/30969.html?type=flv

But I think you need 3ds max or xsi plugins to get the assets into it.

http://doc.crymod.com/

I think I seen someone on the forums doing architecture with the source engine.
If you wanted to learn the source engine noesis do dvds on level building not sure how much use that would be to you.

www.noesisinteractive.com


Most 3d apps could do what you want some more suited than others.
Cinema4d has an architectural edition of there software not sure how restrictive there demo version is, could give it a try.
 
Chaos: thanks for that - I hadn't even thought about the CryEngine (to be honest I didn't really know about it all). That architecture mod looks amazing! I'll have a closer look into it.

LazyManc: thanks for the suggestion, but I have used SketchUp in the past and I simply abhor it. Good if you don't have access to anything better, but it's quite frankly rubbish.
 
Blender3d (www.blender3d.org) I still say is vastly underrated when it comes to stuff like this.

You can import 99.9% of formats into the system, has a real-time walkthrough mode so you're not restricted to a fixed animation, physics engine, some immense rendering and is totally free with no watermarks or anything.

Userbase and support forums are extensive, manual is pretty detailed and with some PyScripts, there's probably some kinda architecture mods kicking around that would create a good base for your project.

Takes a couple of days to learn but the results are definately worth it. Used it myself for 5 years now for simple little projects and have no need for anything else.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom